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Vancouver—A 15-year-old program that helps seniors teach children how to grow their own veggies and cook what they’ve harvested could find itself withering on the vine.

Provincial educators are shifting toward experiential learning and say this project out of the University of British Columbia is exactly the kind of program they are looking for.

One young child laughs while holding a large bowl of kale he harvested himself. The next stop is making it for dinner. (Stacy Friedman / Submitted)

Elders and youth work together in the kitchen to cook all the veggies they’ve harvested into a large community dinner. (Contributed/ Stacy Friedman)

Two young students hold up the carrots they’ve planted, grown and harvested themselves. (Contributed/ Stacy Friedman)

During the fall season it’s wet in Vancouver. But that doesn’t stop the kids from digging and building their garden boxes. (Contributed/ Stacy Friedman)

A group of students works together despite the weather to prepare their garden boxes for the season. (Contributed/ Stacy Friedman)

“The transformation you see is absolutely astounding,” said Teri Wester, 65, a volunteer for the last five years. “The garden starts to grow, the kids get the full meal deal — right from planning, seeding, harvesting to cooking food.”

The Intergenerational Landed Learning Project is sponsored by UBC’s faculty of education and brings elders together with youth —mostly from grades 3 to 7 — allowing them to get their hands dirty throughout the school year at the UBC farm. More than 1,400 urban youth have participated in the program so far.

Students work in groups of four supervised by two elders and are responsible for planting and harvesting their own garden box. Then they become chefs and cook for the community.

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Pairing people from different generations so they can learn on the land together cultivates social and emotional wellbeing for both youth and seniors, Wester said. For her, getting back to nature was a huge part of her “grief healing” process after her husband died.

“I want to know my grandchildren have this connection to nature awakened in them,” she said. “That would be a legacy to leave to know that connection is alive and well.”

But the future of the project is not secure. Funding is running out, which means they will have to reduce programming to finish the current year. That’s why the volunteer-driven group is crowdfunding to make the $20,000 necessary to keep the program running until June. The campaign has raised almost $9,000 as of Wednesday.

“This is not just about food and growing,” said program manager Stacy Friedman. “It’s really about raising whole human beings who care about community.”

Last year, the project included 133 students, 76 elder volunteers and 113 UBC education students completing garden-based practicums along with two school-wide professional development workshops for teachers.

“Connecting youth to the food system … gives us real-world ways to learn topics that are sometimes very abstract to children,” Friedman said, pointing to environmental, social and health issues. “Everything we consume came from the earth and goes back to it.”

For instance, kids learn that items come in packaging and can be recycled, how far items travelled, what to do with waste or the conditions of how things are grown.

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The minister of education confirmed in an email to the Star that hands-on learning and focus on collaboration, critical thinking and communication skills are new to the B.C. curriculum.

The K-9 curriculum is already being used with plans for K-10 to be implemented in the 2018-19 school year.

But Friedman and her team were ahead of the trend, creating their own curriculum years ago. Several elementary schools have already used the new material. This year, the project began piloting an inquiry portion, which dedicates a part of each day for students to explore their own interests.

“We need to use observation, set up experiments and think about strategies to get our answers to questions,” Friedman said. “Those kind of thinking skills are a big part of the new curriculum.”

But, Friedman said, the idea is still new and there is not enough “practical support for authentic inquiry,” citing the lack of training.

Educators, the program and the children are learning together, Friedman said.

And it’s that sense of community that keeps volunteers coming back. Some have been there for a decade. Friedman told the Star about one 96-year-old who still helps out despite having not volunteered for eight years.

Friedman said the impact of the experience stays with them. “One student found an almond seed in compost four years ago,” she said. “Every year he sends a photo standing next to his almond tree.”

He’s now in Grade 7.

Using urban farms for outdoor experiential learning is a foundation for success, said Marc Schutzbank, executive director of the non-profit Fresh Roots. Their mandate sees gardens as pathways to youth empowerment and employment.

“Not everyone learns best by sitting in straight rows,” he explained. “But many teachers and students are realizing the power of curiosity-driven learning.”

When youth can see what happens when they take an action or when they don’t, these choices are not abstract, he said.

“In a world overrun by dings and constant social pressure, the garden, as it has been for all times, is still a place for peace - something that youth need just as much as ever."

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